Art and Experience, Utrecht, © 1996. All rights reserved

Embodiment is short-hand for the polymodal nature of our sensuous access to the world. We have five senses and these structure the data of perception in distinct ways. These variously structured data must be 'translated' into a coherent whole. Such 'translation' is provided by perceptual imagination, which at the level of consciousness corresponds to perception's embodiment. Changing the position of the perceiving body changes the perception. Regarding polymodality: we expect visual changes to recur by touching what is seen. In this representations differ essentially from our perceptions. This is an additional argument for direct realism concerning perception: the perception of a representation is partly disembodied: it activates the mind but de-activates the body (we ought not run onto the stage to save the threatened heroin--this has little to do with so-called fictional emotions). Cf. also secondary and tertiary qualities.